ARCADTECTURE: thoughts from a one man architectural office.
  • Blog
  • To contact me
  • Links

NCARB endorses licensure upon graduation - Nope!

6/10/2014

0 Comments

 
This makes me think of a good news - bad news scenario I use all the time.  Good News - There are only 3 work days in a week, the Bad News - Each day is now 48 hours long.

Good New is you get your license upon graduation, the Bad News is it now take 8 years to graduate.

Having been in the profession for 27 years, I understand the value of my education and the value of my experience.  They are not interchangeable.  My college education taught me how to think differently.  It taught me to explore all possibilities and think outside the box.  I think all architects do this.  It wasn't until years after I graduated that I realized what I had been taught.  We are problem solvers, spatial problem solvers, and as we approach problems we have a particular way of looking at things.  What is obvious to me is not to my friends.  Just as I think we architects take for granted that we see and think in three dimensions, out involuntary thought process for solving issues is something most don't have.

Having the training to think different is not the same as having the knowledge to apply it.  When I was in school back in 1979 my Dad asked me if I wanted a job when I got out and of course I answered "Yes".  His response was "I don't care if you are the next Frank Lloyd Wright, if you want a job when you get out you have to be able to do two things - Print and draw!".  In current times I would assume it would be "CAD and type".  They didn't teach me how to print in college.  They didn't really teach me how to draw in college it was just something I had to learn to progress.  They taught me how to think in college.

I am a stickler for understanding the code.  The code is our basis guidelines for designing and safety.  I don't remember being taught a lot about the Codes, but I did know they existed.  I still get mad at myself for all the stuff I don't know about the code, but I feel I know more than most.  Working in a firm and learning the building processes involved in getting a project complete can not be replicated in a class room.   If they think it can, then you will be co-oping, not attending school.  The engineers use to take quarters off and work while in college.  At Virginia Tech we even had the option to work our fourth year.  Most came back for the summer school session to catch up on the credit hour to continue along with us in our fifth year.  So currently you have to work three years before you can sit for the exam.  Are they going to make you work three years while you are in college in order to obtain an architectural degree?  

I just don't think you can shorten the process and if you incorporate them what do you save?  Trying to integrate them might just be disruptive to both processes, so it may end up you don't learn to think and you don't really understand the process.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    A self  employed architect.  Office of one. 
    I work 24/7 and weekends too!

    "For every complex problem there is usually a simple solution............................................and it is usually wrong"

    Archives

    February 2017
    May 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    October 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    July 2013
    March 2013
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly